Miniaturized devices are manufactured by applying lithography steps to semiconductor wafers and by bonding wafers or portions of wafers to a carrier substrate, such as a glass substrate or another semiconductor wafer or portion of semiconductor wafer. Some semiconductor manufacturing methods may require thinning of the semiconductor wafer while it is bonded to a carrier substrate. Other manufacturing methods involve bonding patterned wafers to other patterned wafers providing electrical interconnects between the bonded wafers such that three-dimensional semiconductor devices extending across the interface between the wafers are formed.
Wafers can be bonded to substrates by applying an adhesive to the substrate and/or the semiconductor wafer before bringing them into contact which each other and applying an external force. Moreover, direct wafer bonding can be used for bonding two semiconductor wafers together by carrying out an annealing step without any intermediate adhesive.
It is desirable to monitor a quality of a bonded wafer arrangement during its manufacture to improve a yield of manufactured high quality semiconductor devices.